Mid-day Flow Summary

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Oracle (ORCL)
With the stock trading near $18.69, an aggressive seller of May 18 Calls entered the market at 10:21 this morning. This seller hit $.80 bids on all six exchanges simultaneously, launching nearly 12,000 contracts in an opening transaction.

The immediate impact was a quick selloff in the stock to the $18.56 level, followed by a recovery above the initial levels by 10:35.  At 10:37, the seller returned with another multi-market order selling nearly 7000 contracts across all exchanges for a total of nearly 20,000 on the day.

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Dow Jones and Co. (DJ)
DJ reopened up $20 to $56 today as the company confirmed receipt of an unsolicited offer. No options trading took place this morning because the stock was halted this morning. However, activity from last week suggests that a few traders were well positioned for the news. The stock hasn’t been above $45 in several years, and it closed last night at $36.33. Over the last six trading days, more than 6500 upside calls have changed hands, giving the owners a significant windfall today.

Last Wednesday (4/25) 3000 Sep 40 Calls traded for $.85 cents (currently worth over $15) and yesterday shortly before the close a buyer paid $.325 for 3000 September 45 Calls in a trade tied to stock on the Amex. Despite the initial delta neutrality of the trade, this morning’s gap-move equals a $2.5 million gain for the buyer.
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